Picking up and carrying around stuff is fun, but another claw/gripper? Can’t we do something new?

That is what I did. I sat down with the idea of Pythagorean triangles in my mind, and then I imagined a tower crane, with all these diagonal truss beams. Djing!

So I started laying out triangles and piecing them together. I’m pretty content with the result, which uses 3 different triangles.

A few caveats:

You need a turntable, I didn't dare putting so much stress on a single axle.

The hook and winch are not in the manual, I used 3 different ones, and I bet you need another 3 for your own projects.

At first I used my gamepad code to control the crane, but later I programmed it as well.

Tower cranes are usually used to build high buildings right? It’s maybe not as cool as flying robot builders, but I managed to let my crane build a tower.

The logic goes something like “turn around until the ultrasonic sensor reads less than 20cm, pull the winch down and up, go to starting position, go down and up, repeat”, and can easily be programmed in NXT-G or NBC.

Before you buy, remember that you need a turntable and of course a bit of string. Both the old and new model turntables should work with minimal modifications.